The Khorasan Group, the Al-Qaeda-linked cell that just landed on the US intelligence radar last month, allegedly has Americans in its ranks fighting in the Middle East whom the FBI cannot prevent from re-entering the country.

Last month, the world was introduced to yet another terrorist
group – the Khorasan Group – a veteran group of
Al-Qaeda-affiliated radicals purportedly running amok in the
Middle East, which the head of the FBI says is “bent on
destruction” – and most specifically in the United States.

“Khorasan was working and you know, may still be working on
an effort to attack the United States or our allies, and looking
to do it very, very soon,” James Comey said in an interview
with 60 Minutes, a CBS news program.

The FBI chief, who has kept a low profile since becoming head of
the internal intelligence agency last year, refused to put a time
stamp on when an attack would occur.

“I can't sit here and tell you whether it's their plan is
tomorrow or three weeks or three months from now,” he said.
“Given our visibility we know they're serious people, bent on
destruction. And so we have to act as if it's coming
tomorrow.”

Perhaps most shocking, Comey revealed that there are about “a
dozen or so” American citizens fighting in Syria on the side
of Islamic fundamentalist groups. Moreover, the government knows
the identity of the individuals who, as American passport
holders, are free to reenter the United States.

“Ultimately, an American citizen, unless their passport's
revoked, is entitled to come back. So, someone who's fought with
ISIL, with American passport wants to come back, we will track
them very carefully,” he said.

Comey admitted that he knew the identity of the Americans
fighting alongside radical groups in the Middle East, while
suggesting there could be others he is unaware of added, “I
hesitate only because I don't know what I don't know.”

For many Americans, such revelations may sound incredible for a
group that nobody had heard of before the United States starting
bombing northern Syria last month.

While all of the media chatter prior to the September 22 aerial
attacks in northern Syria focused on eliminating the Islamic
State (IS formerly ISIS/ISIL), the US Department of Defense
announced the next day that it is attacking other groups in Syria
as well.

“Separately, the United States has also taken action to
disrupt the imminent attack plotting against the United States
and Western interests conducted by a network of seasoned Al-Qaeda
veterans - sometimes referred to as the Khorasan Group - who have
established a safe haven in Syria to develop external attacks,
construct and test improvised explosive devices and recruit
Westerners to conduct operations,” the statement said.

Journalist Glenn Greenwald argued that the Obama administration,
lacking justification for a bombing campaign in Syria, was forced
to invent the group.

Obama administration officials “suddenly began spoon-feeding
their favorite media organizations and national security
journalists tales of a secret group that was even scarier and
more threatening than ISIS, one that posed a direct and immediate
threat to the American Homeland,” Greenwald wrote in the
Intercept.

The Khorasan Group suddenly appeared on the scene on September
13, as first detailed by Associated Press and anonymous US
sources:

“While the Islamic State is getting the most attention now,
another band of extremists [Khorasan] in Syria — a mix of
hardened jihadis from Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Europe —
poses a more direct and imminent threat to the United States,
working with Yemeni bomb-makers to target US aviation, American
officials say.”

What is the ultimate purpose of this shadowy group?

According to the AP report, the Khorasan militants did not travel
to Syria to fight the government of President Bashar Assad, but
rather “they were sent by Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
to recruit Europeans and Americans whose passports allow them to
board a US-bound airliner with less scrutiny from security
officials.”

That is a threat the FBI chief, considering the destruction that
terrorists wrought on the United States on September 11, 2001,
will certainly be taking very seriously.